10 Eye-Popping Artworks From Just-Opened Museum Shows Around the World

Get your luggage ready.

installation view of "You Say You Want a Revolution."

With turn of the season comes a new onslaught of museum exhibitions around the world. For those lucky enough to be part of the jet-set crew, this means it’s time to start planning trips to such disparate locations as Taipei, Buenos Aires, and Hamburg, Germany.

In Seoul, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art invites visitors to explore a small but life-size two-story home, chock full of knick-knacks. The piece, a recreation of the artist’s studio, is by Kim Eull, one of the nominees for the Korea Artist Prize 2016.

Across the globe in London, the psychedelic ’60s take center stage with an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum that explores the lasting impact of the latter half of the decade, touching on music, fashion, film, design, and political activism.

From hidden Buddhas at the Tokyo National Museum to “Records and Rebels” at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, see which museums and institutions are hosting the most exciting shows worldwide this year in the slideshow below.

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Seated Eleven-Headed Kannon Bosatsu
“The Hidden Buddha of Rakuyaji Temple, Shiga” at Tokyo National Museum, Sept. 13-Dec. 11, 2016. Towering at over three meters high, this imposing sculpture is known Seated Juichimen Kannon Bosatsu (Ekadasamukha). It is normally kept behind closed doors at Rakuyaji Temple, and is the centerpiece of the first showing of this suite of 20 historic Buddhist statues from the Heian period (794–1192) in Tokyo. Caption: Seated Eleven-Headed Kannon Bosatsu (Ekadasamukha), Heian period, 10th century. Image courtesy Tokyo National Museum.
Kazimir Malevich
“Kazimir Malevich, Retrospectiva” at Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Sept.13- Nov. 2016. This radical Suprematist cup gives a sense of what an interesting path the Eugenia Petrova-curated show beats through this important career, a collaboration with the State Russian Museum billed as the first retrospective of the pioneering artist in Argentina and Latin America alike. Caption: Kazimir Malevich, Cup and saucer (Supremus), 1928.
Kim Eull
“Korea Artist Prize 2016” at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul, Aug. 31, 2016-Jan. 15,2017. For Twilight Zone Studio (2016), Kim Eull (b. 1954) recreates his own two-story working space, complete with inspirational clutter and an installation of more than 1,400 drawings displayed along one long, crowded wall. It is part of his contribution to this show of work by the finalists for Korea’s most important art prize, alongside Back Seung Woo, Ham Kyungah, and the collective mixrice (Cho Ji Eun and Yang Chul Mo). Caption: Kim Eull, Twilight Zone Studio (inside), 2016. Image courtesy National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul.
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
“Looking for Traces: Drawings and Watercolours from Three Centuries” at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Sept. 2-Dec. 4, 2016. This handsome work by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1821), a buddy of Goerthe, stands out among the 120 never-before-seen works from the 17th to the late 19th century in this show. Its conclave of animals offers charming evidence of the enthusiasm for drawing that entered into Germany via Italy in the period. Caption: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Illustration for chapbook "Reynard the Fox": The judgment of the animals. Photo by Johannes von Mallinckrodt. Courtesy of Hamburger Kunsthalle.
Billy Dufala with Mohamed Bourouissa
“Mohamed Bourouissa: Horseday” at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Sept. 10, 2016-Jan. 1, 2017. This photo of one Billy Dufala with his inventively costumed steed was made as part of this French-Algerian artist’s exploration of African-American horse riding culture in the city of Philadelphia (ongoing since 2013), which had him initiate a contest for the best-dressed horse and then document the entrants. Caption: Billy Dufala with Mohamed Bourouissa for “Horseday” project, 2014. Courtesy Billy Dufala, Mohamed Bourouissa, Kamel Mennour Gallery.
Sam Taylor-Johnson Sigh
“Sam Taylor-Johnson: Sigh” at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Sept. 9–Dec. 11, 2016. Her Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Director for Fifty Shades of Gray behind her, Taylor-Johnson returns to the museum world for this showcase of her 2008 Sigh, an eight-channel film showing the BBC Concert Orchestra pantomiming a performance, combining, it seems, the thrills of video art, classical music, and mime into one neat action. Caption: Sam Taylor-Johnson, Sigh [still], 2008. © Sam Taylor-Johnson. All rights reserved, DACS 2015. Courtesy White Cube.
Stephan Balkenhol
“Stephan Balkenhol: Sculptures and Reliefs” at Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Sept. 8-Nov. 13, 2016. The latest stop for this touring exhibition by the German artist (b. 1957), features among other works this amusing tableau of “spherical human beings,” showing how Balkenhol revivifies the art of direct wood carving with his zany wit, making it—literally and figuratively—edgy again. Caption: Stephan Balkenhol, Spherical human beings (woman and man), 2012. Photo by Henrik Hornung, image courtesy Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
Bahman Kiarostami
“Taipei Beinnale 2016: Gestures and Archives of the Present, Genealogies of the Future,” Taipei Fine Arts Museum and other venues,  Sept. 10, 2016-Feb. 5, 2017. Re-enactment (2006) by Bahman Kiarostami (b. 1978) is just one of the works by some 80 artists that French curator Corinne Diserens has assembled for this biennial. For this video project, Kiarostami takes as subject the pageantry surrounding the holy month of Muharram, when men dress in costume to reenact the death of Imam Hossein, grandson of Mohammed. He invites performers to reenact their personal Hossein in his film studio, then cuts together their amateur acting with images from their own lives, providing an unexpected window into Iranian society. Caption: Bahman Kiarostami, Re-enactment, 2006. Image courtesy Taipei Biennale.
Kristen Morgin
“Visions and Revisions: Renwick Invitational 2016” at Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC, Sept. 9, 2016–Jan. 8, 2017. This spectacular car, by the LA-based Morgin (b. 1968), gives a sense of the ambition the artist brings to ceramics. She’s one of four finalists for the seventh installment of the biennial Renwick Invitational, a juried show that up-and-coming figures, this year including Morgin as well as Steven Young Lee,  Jennifer Trask, and Norwood Viviano. Caption: Kristen Morgin, Sweet and Low Down, 2005. Collection of Kristen L. Morgin. Image courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills.
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
“You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970” at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Sept. 10 2016-Feb. 26 2017. All things anti-establishment and psychedelic are at the fore in the V&A’s trip in time back to Swinging London and parts beyond. The show is chockablock with work like this groovy poster for the far-out English band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Caption: Poster for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown at UFO, 16 and 23 June, by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, 1967, London (Michael English & Nigel Waymouth). Photograph © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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